A highly regarded Vandy squad has lost to a 13 (Siena), a 13 (Murray State), and a 12 (Richmond) in the first round in the school’s last three trips to the tournament. It only gets thrown at them four or five hundred times a day back home.
“Our team may have as much motivation in this tournament as any of the 68 selected,’’ says coach Kevin Stallings.
Harvard’s last appearance in the NCAA Tournament pre-dates the Churchill “Iron Curtain’’ speech, the famed Army-Notre Dame scoreless tie, and the second Louis-Conn fight. This first NCAA appearance in 66 years has moved Stallings to lavish praise on Tommy Amaker and his squad, saying, among other things, that what he likes is their chemistry.
“They are very well-coached,’’ Stallings says. “They play extremely well together on both ends of the floor. They have a definite plan on offense. Their team defense is exceptional, as is their willingness to share the ball, to move the ball to get it to the best option on that particular possession.’’
That’s not all.
“I think, like our team, they’ve grown this team up,’’ he continues. “They’re juniors and seniors, for the most part, and they’ve played a lot of basketball together. They’re used to each other. There’s an inherent chemistry on a team like that, and I think they have it.’’
All of that is true, but it won’t matter much if Harvard can’t get its hands on the ball every once in a while. Harvard is many good things, but the Crimson’s front line is positively Lilliputian when compared with Vanderbilt’s, which features 6-foot-11-inch Festus Ezeli, who just got through playing the famed Anthony Davis to a draw; 6-8 Lance Goulbourne; 6-7 Jeffery Taylor; 6-9 Steve Tchiengang; and 6-9 Rod Odom.
These guys aren’t just long. Messrs. Ezeli and Tchiengang are each in possession of proverbial “NBA bodies.’’ It’s going to be a formidable task for the Harvard bigs, who aren’t all that big.
